Chapter 19
“I need to go dress shopping,” Addie announces Monday morning, while I’m sipping my coffee, thankful that I don’t have to get the kids ready for school before work for another week.
“Good morning to you too.”
“Dad. This is serious.” She stops at the island, smacking her hands on the counter to emphasize her point.
“And why do you need to go dress shopping?”
“Prom. Obviously.”
“Prom isn’t for months. You have plenty of time—”
“No. I don’t. If I don’t go early, I’ll lose out on all the good options.
Once they sell you a dress, no one else can buy the same one.
So I’ll be stuck with a dress no one wanted and—” I watch her over my coffee, letting her ramble about dresses and how her life will be ruined if she has to look ugly in her prom photos and it’s… a lot for six in the morning.
“This is senior prom, Dad. I’ve been dreaming about this since I was five years old.”
“I understand.”
“I need to go today, and I need you to be okay with whatever I pick. No matter how expensive it is.”
I sigh, knowing a losing battle when I see one. “Okay.”
A bright smile spreads across her face instantly. “Ah! Thank you!”
“Let me know when you find the one you want, and we’ll figure out the money.”
She’s up and around the table before I’ve finished my sentence, throwing her arms around me. “I love you, you’re the best!”
She goes back to her side of the table, picking up her phone and calling Emmett, telling him I said yes. I don’t even want to know how expensive this is about to be.
It’ll be fine. I’ll make it work.
“Hey,” Addie says when she hangs up. “You seem less grumpy lately.”
“I’m not grumpy.”
She makes a face that says she disagrees with that statement. “Is it Karen?”
“Yeah,” I say, guilt swimming in my chest at the lie. “Mhm. Karen.”
She nods, satisfied with my answer. “You know, I think I was wrong about her. She’s good for you. Maybe you just needed some time.”
“Mm.”
“Are you seeing her today?”
“I’m meeting her for coffee before work.” That is true, but I don’t tell her I’m meeting with Karen to end our relationship. That would involve explaining why I’m happy all of a sudden. Who I’m going out with.
And one thing’s for certain.
I have no clue how I’m supposed to tell my kids I’m dating their uncle.
“Good,” she says. “You deserve to be happy, Dad.”
Karen and I order our coffee and sit outside, despite the cold. I think I need the fresh air for what I’m about to do. She smiles when I sit down, her usual easy warmth, and I already hate myself for having to hurt her.
“I feel like I haven’t seen you in weeks,” she says, taking my hand across the table.
“You know how the holidays get.”
She nods like she understands completely. “We went to my parents for a few days. Tyler was completely spoiled. My mother bought him way more than he could actually play with.” She laughs, shaking her head. “How was your Christmas?”
“Good. Really good. The kids had a great day.”
We talk for a while about the kids and family. It’s nice. Genuinely. That’s what makes this so hard. We could have been friends if I didn’t have to do what I’m about to do.
“Karen,” I say when there’s a gap in conversation, and the way I sound, the way she looks at me, she already knows.
Her smile falls for the first time since we arrived.
“I’m sorry, I—I haven’t been able to be fully present with you, and you deserve better than that. I think it might be best for us to go our separate ways.”
“Is this about your ex-wife? Are you not over her?” she asks, her face soft with pity. And it would be easy to let her think that, but no.
I can’t lie.
I’ve done enough of that.
“Not exactly.” I look at the table. I’ve never said this to anyone. And it could ruin everything. But she deserves to know. “It’s actually… Um. It’s actually Will.”
“Will,” she repeats slowly, wrapping her tongue around his name. The meaning.
“Yes,” I nod, meeting her eyes.
She sits back in her chair and lets out a breath. And when she brings her hand back up to rest on mine, she doesn’t look angry. “Oh, sweetie. That’s—That’s not good.”
Those words hit me right in the heart, the first reaction to something I’ve been holding in for so long. It brings up emotions in my eyes that I didn’t even know I had, leaving me fighting back tears. “I know,” I say, my voice cracking.
“He went to prison. He’s your brother-in-law. What would the town think?” She shakes her head. “I’m not saying any of this to be cruel. I’m worried for you.”
“I can’t help it,” I tell her, pausing when a group of people walk by. “I’ve been trying for months.”
She squeezes my hand. “Does he feel the same way?”
“I think he might. In his own way.”
“Then I hope it works out. For your sake.”
“Thank you. For being so good about all this,” I say, with a sniffle.
We sit there for another few minutes, finishing our coffee, and when we stand to leave, she hugs me tight and says to be careful with him.
I try not to let that get to me.
Victoria comes to find me after my last patient leaves, leaning in my office doorway with her coat already on and her purse over her shoulder. “I’m going to lunch,” she says. “You’ve got a walk-in.”
“Okay, then why are you going to lunch?”
She raises her eyebrows up and down in a suggestive way. “I think you can handle this one on your own.” She disappears before I can ask what that means. Lord knows why I keep her around when she can’t even do her job.
I finish the chart I’m working on and head out to the waiting room, surprised to find Will. I look around for any other patient, but the room is otherwise empty.
“What are you doing here?” I ask, stopping in front of him where he’s sitting in one of our new waiting room chairs. “Are you sick?”
“Something like that.”
I know he’s up to something. He’s wearing that smirk. But what else can I do? I gesture for him to follow me. “Alright then… Come on back.”
He follows me down the hall into exam room one.
“Okay,” I say, leaning against the counter, crossing my arms. He’s fine. I know this for a fact, considering I saw him yesterday and we texted this morning. “What’s wrong?”
He’s sitting on the exam table, his hands braced behind him. “Well,” he says. “Here’s the thing.” I wait for whatever this is, but I have a feeling it isn’t good. “I’ve been seeing somebody.” He says seriously, like he’s not talking about me. “Been on a few dates now.”
I put the pen in my hand on the counter while he continues. “Problem is, he won’t let me touch him. I’m sure you can imagine how that leaves a guy.”
“Will—”
“I’ve been so pent up.” He looks down at his lap and back up with a long-suffering sigh. “Been hard all morning. Can’t seem to get it to go down no matter what I do.”
“Are you serious right now?”
“I’m in a lot of distress. So, I figured who better to see than you?”
“This isn’t a medical issue.”
“Are you really gonna turn me away when I’m in pain?”
“Victoria will be back soon. She’ll know.” I turn my back to him because I can’t be trusted looking at that face, and I am not doing whatever he wants me to right now. It’s one thing after hours, but this—
It crosses a line.
“Victoria already knows,” he says casually.
I turn back around. “What do you mean, she knows?”
He shrugs. “You should pay her more. She’s been very supportive. Said she’d take an extra long lunch break.”
I groan, rubbing my hand over my face. How did she find out? Did he tell her, or did she see me watching him and figure it out herself? Either way, it’s not good.
“So, what do you say, Doc? You gonna help me out or what?”
I don’t know what comes over me.
Maybe it’s the fact that we’ve been on three dates and holding out is starting to become as much torture to me as it is to him. Maybe it’s that I ended things with Karen and I’m feeling lighter than I have in a while.
Or maybe it’s Will sitting on my exam table and the erection I can see poking at his jeans.
Whatever it is, I intend to say no, but I find myself pulling on a fresh pair of gloves instead.
His eyes drop to my hands. “Oh, shit.”
“Alright,” I say, committing to the bit. “Let’s take a look, Mr. Davis.” He opens his mouth and doesn’t say anything. That’s a first. “I’m going to need you to remove your pants, please.”
“Mr. Davis,” I repeat when he doesn’t move, staring at me with wide eyes.
He unzips his pants with clumsy fingers, shoving them down and kicking them into the room, his hard cock bouncing out. It takes everything for me to stay in character. “Go ahead and lie back.”
He lies back on the exam table, the paper crinkling under him. He’s staring at the ceiling, stone-faced like he’s trying to keep it together as much as I am. Seeing him like this, in the light, his cock flushed and desperate.
I take my time, avoiding touching him, when that’s all I want to do.
“I see the issue,” I say, looking up at him over the top of my glasses. “How long has it been since your last orgasm?”
He squirms, clenching his fists at his side to keep still. “I don’t know. Yesterday?”
I raise an eyebrow.
“Yeah,” he nods. “Yesterday.”
“And the discomfort began this morning?” I ask, sliding a finger up his shaft, watching him shiver.
“Y-yeah.” His voice has gone unsteady, a far cry from his usual teasing confidence. “This morning.”
I wrap my gloved hand around him, and he makes a sound that has my cock twitching in my scrubs. “Is everything okay?”
“The gloves.”
“What about them?”
“Nothing, j-just feel strange.”
I watch his face as I stroke him slowly, feeling every inch of him, enjoying my chance to explore his body as much as I’m enjoying getting to tease him for once. “This is a very manageable condition,” I tell him as his hips shift up to meet my hand.
“Is it?”
“Mhm. Very common.” I tighten my grip, watching his mouth open on a silent moan. I can tell by the tension in his body and the way his knuckles are white, gripping the edges of the table, that he’s already close. Maybe I underestimated the effect of my sex ban.
That thought makes me smile. No one has ever been this desperate for me before.